Ep 248: Tony Martin, Tim Ferguson, Tom Elliott

There’s not really much more I can add. Have you seen the title of the episode? Tony Freakin’ Martin calls us up to talk about A Quiet Word with Carrie Fisher. We end up talking about all sorts of things but it’s Tony Freakin’ Martin so you’ll listen because he’s a genius.

In case that’s not enough genius for you, Tim Ferguson joins us as cohost and tells us all about his new book. We get into a fight about what’s wrong with Australian screen-based story-telling.

What? You want more? Then we’ve got Tom Elliott telling us all about how James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch are trying to get their mitts into Channel 10.

17 Comments

It’s a pity you didn’t ask Tim Ferguson how is babby formed because I want to have his babby. Rarely has anyone talked so much sense about Australian scriptwriting. I’m enjoying his current ranty incarnation.

What a fantastic interview with Tony Martin. I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time and can’t wait to see ep 2 of his new show.

Now… Tim Ferguson. I’m sorry, but what a condescending, self indulgent rant that was. Thank god for Brett, the voice of reason (at 1:07:05). I think Tim raises some valid points about Australian scripts but being rude and quite frankly, snobbish himself is not the way to go about it. (I’m from regional Victoria, before Tim accuses me of being a snobby latte sipping Melbournian).

And here’s another vote for This Week On Boxcutters, cos I like that bit!!

Josh, I think you rushed to judgement too quickly on Hellcats. It follows the Rule of Seven.

In the seventh episode, the team is involved in a bus crash on the way to the Regional cheerleading competition, and the story gets really dark and complex. The fluffy college-bitch-drama turns out to be just a facade. They get stranded in a paddock, and after initially wresting with the lack of hair dryers and the abundance of cow dung, their subconscious feelings come out, especially when they encounter a mysterious campervan of unknown purpose. But I shouldn’t really spoil this for you, you should watch it for yourself.

There are also no Inner-Melbournian, Nova-visting, Green-Communist Elitists in the paddock, so that’s a plus.

Mmm. did something happen to the RSS feed? I grabbed this ep, was about 20 mins in, but this mornings auto-refresh of my feeds seems to have clobbered it…and made me download it again. Could be the podcast s/w on the phone, of course.

I have also encountered some problems with the feed. It tended to loop in certain sections: in “the news” when Josh was discussing the different advantages for Asian Race participants in their own countries, and in “Pork/Trotters” repeating Tim’s continuing rant about the Greens…. I could fast-forward through these problematic areas on my laptop, not on my MP3 player which meant a very boring time at the gym….

Did catch-up with Tim Ferguson’s show last night, quite enjoyed it, particularly in this lack-lustre state election. I will watch it again.

Oh Tim, that was the most beautiful encapsulation of why Australian films are so rarely successful. Too desperate to have ‘meaning’ and ‘substance’… but oh so light on ‘entertainment’.

Not mentioned, but related: here’s the real tragedy – for every (successful, commercial) film that gets made, the industry grows – resulting in valuable experience for the cameraman, cinematographer, wardrobe, caterer, lighting and sound guy, the 90% of film production that occurs BEHIND the camera. By being so concerned with what the 10% of “creative” (ie self-indulgent wanker actors and directors and screenwriters)) that happens in FRONT of camera, the local industry actually handicaps itself from providing jobs to the other 90%. It’s frankly insane. If you want Aussie cinema, try making something that someone actually might want to watch. Or re-watch. I say – lets help out the 90% of the industry; devote the next 10 years to making Porky’s/ American Pie/ Clerks/ Blair Witch Project knockoffs. Cheap, populist, and will actually stimulate (fnar fnar) the industry. More work, more money, more opportunity.

@Adam D(BC)
Oh lord I hope that defence of Samson & Delilah was a joke… Just reading the synopsis makes me run away screaming in horror. Watching *that* at the cinema is your idea of a fun night out?! Worthwhile, meaningful; dreadful. Do they hand out razor blades with the popcorn as you walk in?
_____

Food for thought:
Australian film has been a joke for 20 years now. Not an emotive, argumentative statement, but based in reality – we’ve been decrying the state of the industry for 20 years or more. My mother. the sainted Ma Mords, simply won’t go and see Aussie films anymore – she’s been burnt too many times.

Soz everyone… I believe a bug in the upload caused the strange looping in the show this week… I have now fixed the problem and it will fit on a standard CD for those that like that and there’s no more looping.

Interesting, because mine stopped playing (twice) on my iPod Classic at the 52-minute mark. Good to know the file was borked.

mordwa: I’m deadly serious about Samson & Delilah. ‘Important’ is one of those words that’s bandied about all too frequently by wanky inner-city latte types (oops, that’s me) but in this case it’s the perfect label. In a single swipe it undoes all the airy-fairy dreamtime nonsense propagated by films like Australia and lays bare the real indigenous experience, and as if that’s not enough it’s a thoroughly entertaining and absorbing film. Properly world class.

You won’t see me defending crap like I Love You Too, though. Jesus. Fuck Australian film if that’s the accepted standard.

Actually, it’s a pretty commonly held misconception, BB-R, that the running time on wax cylinders is quite short, which is understandable because they were generally released with a single track per cylinder, slotted into the pages of a book like the old photo ‘albums’ – hence the name of the long player, eg ‘Album of the Week’.

In fact, the technical specification provides a limitless volume of media storage. You just need a big enough room…